


Build Me A Team And Call It Therapy

by yourviolentlackofvirtue



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic, Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Exy au, The Raven King Spoilers, also they get recruited by the foxes, because i have no self control when it comes to my fandoms, blue and ronan friendship fic because the world needs more of that, one day i will learn how to tag these things properly, this was a lot harder to tag than i thought it would be, today is not that day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-02-28
Packaged: 2018-09-27 11:39:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10018838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourviolentlackofvirtue/pseuds/yourviolentlackofvirtue
Summary: If Gansey had never shown up at Aglionby with his fancy family name and trade marked smile, Ronan probably would never have been introduced to the sport of exy.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was a head cannon that got a little out of hand. Sorry in advance for this, I got carried away because I love Blue and Ronan's friendship and adore the potential of a Blue and Andrew friendship (no matter how unrealistic).

Depending on where you began the story, it was about Richard Campbell Gansey III.

If Gansey had never shown up at Aglionby with his fancy family name and trade marked smile, Ronan probably would never have been introduced to the sport of exy.

Gansey had joined the school team when he first got to Henrietta; it was nothing special, they competed in local comps and were ranked something like fifth in the district. Exy was a bastard sport and it didn’t really catch on with the students but they had enough people put their hand in for a spot on the team so the program kept running.

Ronan hadn’t been allowed to play on the Aglionby team. After Niall’s death he was too much of a loose cannon, the school board was worried putting him on their court would be a liability, so they fed him some bullshit story about his grades not being good enough. Ronan didn’t care; he wouldn’t have played for them even if they begged.

Somewhere between rowing and being Gansey™ and looking for Glendower Gansey dropped it to free up his time but Ronan was hooked. Something about the violence and the skill of it all caused electricity hum in his veins at the mere thought of it. He knew the rules and the ins and the outs of the sport before he ever picked up a racquet.

The local YMCA had a court, it wasn’t great but it was something, and Ronan taught himself to play. Every Sunday after mass he’d go down to the court and run drills until his muscles ached or Gansey or Adam or Declan called him home.

He bought his own racquet and eventually started signing up for the local comps. Even though he wouldn’t wear the protective gear he wasn’t picky about teams – Ronan would play with anyone who’d take him as long as it meant he could get on the court. Crashing into players and watching the goal light up when his team scored made him feel more like himself than anything else had since what had happened to his father.

Then everything happened with Greenmantle, and finding Glendower, and Gansey dying, and _Adam_ so Ronan stopped playing. He needed time to get his head on straight again, to find his bearings.

When things settled down and he was starting to feel like a person again he went back to the court and he took Blue with him.

No one was more surprised by Blue and Ronan’s friendship than Blue and Ronan. Somewhere between the glaring, clipped tones, and late nights the two of them had found some common ground. They’d become closer than anyone had ever thought possible for the two of them, and that’s probably why Ronan saw her edges fraying before anyone else did.

Yes, Gansey was back and he was okay but that didn’t mean that Blue hadn’t killed him. And yes, Noah hadn’t really been Noah for a while but that didn’t make his absence hurt any less.

In the same way exy was an outlet for his anger, Ronan figured it could be a vessel for her grief.

They started with the basics, catching and throwing and aiming. Once Blue had the hang of that Ronan taught her how to deal with being pushed around on the court – she actually took to that pretty well and he’d never been more proud than he was on the day that she scored against him by knocking him on his ass. 

Within a month she was playing on the same team as Ronan and the two of them were a force to be reckoned with. Between Ronan’s unchecked anger and Blue’s fierce passion they owned the court. Soon enough their team wasn’t just playing in competitions, it was winning them. 

They didn’t speak about it but Adam, Gansey, and Henry never went to their games. It wasn’t that Ronan and Blue didn’t want them there, but they all knew that something about exy helped to keep both Ronan and Blue sane – going would have felt like they were intruding on something private. 

*

It was around that time that Ronan Lynch’s file landed on David Wymack’s desk.

(After their conversation on the roof at The Barns, Declan had promised to let Ronan live his life how he see fit – but he could see how much his younger brother enjoyed exy and he figured the promise of playing for a real team might have been enough to get him to go to college so it was worth a shot.) 

Wymack only looked over the first page of Ronan’s file before he threw it on a pile with a bunch of other things he intended to ignore. 

Sure, Ronan Lynch’s father had been brutally murdered and his mother had died in somewhat odd circumstance all before he’d turned eighteen but that wasn’t enough to make him a fox. Ronan Lynch had been handed opportunity after opportunity and he’d thrown them away or sabotaged them each and every time. Wymack’s team was about second chances for people who the rest of the word had given up on, not for rich boys who didn’t appreciate or take the help that the universe was offering him.

Wymack wrote Ronan off as someone who was unfit to fill a spot on the Foxes’ roster and he was content with that decision.

In the end it was Neil who convinced him to go up to Henrietta and watch him play a game.

Neil had found the file when he was looking for other recruits and he was a little bit blown away by Ronan’s stats, especially when he got to the part that said he’d never had any official training. Where Wymack saw a rich kid trying to piss off authority Neil saw someone who unintentionally sabotaged himself because he’d always been told he didn’t deserve anything good.

There wasn’t much that Neil was willing to fight him on, so Wymack didn’t ask questions. A week later they drove up to Henrietta and Andrew found the idea that they were going to watch a nobody who hadn’t even had any real training interesting enough that he tagged along.

Henrietta’s public exy court was falling to pieces and it was only about two thirds of the size of a regulation court. It seemed tiny compared to the Foxhole Court. Neil looked as if the place personally offended him by being so decrepit and Wymack rolled his eyes when Andrew mentioned that Kevin might have had a conniption if he was there.

The three of them nearly out numbered the rest of the spectators so they made sure to stay in the back where they wouldn’t draw too much attention to themselves. 

Neil pointed out Ronan when he stepped onto the court, and they watched as he fist bumped a small dark haired girl. The two spoke in hushed tones, completely ignoring the rest of their team until the warning buzzer went off and they took up their starting positions. Neither Neil nor Wymack missed the way Andrew’s eyebrows shot up when he noticed Ronan’s distinct lack of protective gear.

They spent the first half watching, and then Wymack was bouncing ideas off Neil and trying to figure out how they could make room for another backliner on the team. Andrew ignored them both and continued to watch the game, silently observing the way that Ronan and the girl worked around each other on the court.

“You should sign her too.” Andrew nudged Neil’s knee with his own, not bothering to see if Neil was following his train of thought.

“Do you want us to have the shortest average height in class one exy?” Wymack asked, not quite a joke but not entirely serious either.

“No, he’s right,” Neil interjected. “They play off of each other.”

At the end of the game Wymack was willing to sign them both on the spot. 

*

After the game Blue and Ronan liked to hang around the court for a little while, talking strategy and picking apart the day’s game. Blue was halfway through recounting how she’d gotten around her defender to score her second goal when the three men approached them.

“You know, with some training you could be pretty good,” the one with the auburn hair said to Ronan.

Ronan looked up, the man’s scars in no way affecting the malice of his sneer. “I’m already pretty good, what the hell do you want?”

The shorter one’s lip twitched in a barely there smile at Ronan’s bluntness and something about the look in his eyes didn’t sit well with Blue.

“Ronan,” she said – half a reprimand, half a warning – as she gently elbowed the boy in question.

“David Wymack, coach of the Palmetto State Foxes,” the last man interjected as Ronan ignored the hand he offered. “Your brother got your file to me and I want you to play on my team. Both of you, actually.”

Ronan stood up and Blue followed soon after, not quite able to look away from the blonde for more than a minute or so at a time. He tilted his head under her scrutiny but his face remained blank as Ronan argued with the other two men.

Outside of playing, Blue didn’t know much about exy. Ronan, on the other hand, knew all about the men standing in front of him – he knew about the Foxes and their odd recruiting standards, he knew about Minyard and Josten, what he didn’t know was why they were in his town and on his court.

He listened to their pitch and when they were done he told them that he wasn’t interested, stalking off the court with Blue following close behind. 

*

A week later both Ronan and Blue received contracts in the mail with information about mid-semester intake and the courses available at Palmetto State University.

Ronan went to throw his out before he’d even opened it when he noticed the school logo on the top left hand side of the envelope but Adam was at home.

“Hey, what’s that?” He caught hold of Ronan’s wrist.

Ronan was still getting used to that, to Adam’s casual touches. He was still amazed by the fact that he was allowed to have this, that after months of side-long glances and being careful with his words he didn’t have to worry any more. He was still getting used to the idea of being Adam’s and Adam being his and not having to be scared.

“A contract,” he replied dropping the envelope down onto the table in front of Adam before falling into the seat beside him.

Ronan watched as Adam skimmed through the contract and course guide, paying particular attention to the quirk of his eyebrow and parting of his lips when he read something he found interesting. It was a few minutes before Adam put it all back down on the table, and a few more after that until he spoke.

“South Carolina isn’t that far away,” he said finally.

“It’s a five hour drive,” Ronan bit back.

Adam sighed and looked down at his fingers as they ran over the knots in the wood of the table. “That doesn’t seem too bad if it means you get to play _and_ go to college.”

Ronan stood up and walked over to the sink. From the window he could see Opal running around in the backyard with sticks in her hair and flowers in her hands. He could feel Adam watching him and he closed his eyes before pressing his knuckles to the counter top.

“It seems pretty fucking far away to me Parrish.”

He opened his eyes again when he felt Adam’s hand on his shoulder.

“I think it would be good for you,” the other boy told him. “I think you should go.”

They had the same argument about four times over the next few weeks. They had it in hushed tones while Opal was asleep, over the phone when Adam had to go back to school; they had it in Ronan’s dreams. He had the same conversations with Gansey and Declan too.

“Fine,” he shouted one day, sick of fighting about it and sick of pretending he didn’t want it. “Fine, I’ll go. But only if Sargent comes too.” 

*

In stark contrast to Ronan, Blue had actually been pretty excited when she received her packet in the mail.

Because of everything with Glendower and Gansey and the road trip she hadn’t had a chance to apply to any schools; now she was being offered what was virtually a free ride to a good college where she could study whatever she wanted and on top of all that she got to play exy for a real team. It was almost like the universe was giving her everything she’d never been game enough to ask for.

She was undeniably happy about it all, but she did have her concerns. What about her mum and everyone else at Fox Way? What about Gansey and Henry and their plans? What about the rest of her found family? What about saving the world?

(Gansey tells her that he’ll go with her. Henry tells her Venezuela will still be there when she finishes school and decides that South Carolina might be a nice change of scenery. Her mum tells her that fixing the world can wait until she’s fixed herself and that everyone at Fox Way already knew what she was going to do. Adam tells her to take care of Ronan.)

And just like that Blue and Ronan were heading down to South Carolina. 

*

Matt let out a low whistle when the black BMW pulled up into the parking spot next to his truck. Nicky did the same when Ronan stepped out of the driver’s side of the car.

All of the foxes had been briefed on their newest recruits and Matt and Nicky had accompanied Dan when she went down to welcome them.

Dan didn’t know how to feel about Ronan and Blue. She’d read their files and she trusted Wymack’s judgment, but the foxes didn’t exactly have the best track record with new people and she wasn’t sure how they were going to integrate two people who already knew how to play together into their team.

“Nice ride,” Matt said taking a step forward to evaluate the car and offer his hand to Ronan. “Matt Boyd, nice to meet you.”

Ronan looked a little apprehensive but shook his hand anyway and Dan noticed the way Blue turned away to try and hide the small smile the spread across her face.

“Ronan Lynch, likewise.” He looked around, taking in Dan and Nicky before pointing to Blue. “That’s Sargent.”

Dan smiled when Blue stepped away from the car and offered Dan her hand. “I also have a first name. I’m Blue, and you must be Dan. Thanks for having us on your team.”

Nicky didn’t even bother with a handshake and pulled Blue into a hug, shrugging when Ronan rejected the offer.

“C’mon, let’s get you guys settled.”

None of the foxes missed the way that Blue being put in with the girls and Ronan having to room with Matt and Aaron seemed to cause the two of them a little bit of anxiety. The bets started almost as soon as the door shut behind the two newest members of their team when they went to get the rest of their stuff from downstairs.

Allison, Nicky, and Matt had bet that they were sleeping together. Dan and Neil bet they were just friends that had known each other for so long that being separated around new people freaked them out a little bit. Aaron didn’t want to know, Kevin didn’t care unless it was going to impact the team. 

“So, what’s the deal with you and tall, dark, and handsome?” Allison asked from the doorway as Blue unpacked her things, she shot Allison a confused look before turning back to her draws. “You and Ronan, what’s going on there?”

Blue let out a snort and shook her head. “Me and Ronan? That’s a joke right?”

Renee walked into the room and sat down on Blue’s bed, turning to look at Allison. “You know the rules, you’re not supposed to ask questions. It’s not fair to everyone else who’s got money in the pot.”

Blue’s eyebrows pulled together as she shut the draw and turned to Renee.

“The foxes like to bet,” she said by way of clarification, “you and Ronan have sparked a few new ones.”

“Ronan and I have never and will never happen,” Blue shrugged. “Hope you guys didn’t loose too much money.”

Andrew and Renee didn’t talk about it in front of any of the other foxes but they both agreed that there was more to the connection between Ronan and Blue than any of them would ever know. 

*

No one won, and the bet was abandoned when Gansey visited his friends for the first time since they’d moved into Fox Tower.

At first everyone was kind of stunned that this guy, Richard Campbell Gansey III, could ever be friends with someone like Ronan Lynch. They were the dictionary definition of opposites and should, by every law of nature, detest the very of idea of each other. But their easy comfort screamed something more similar to family than friendship and Ronan relaxed around Gansey in a way that they had thought was exclusive to Blue. They seemed to have two conversations simultaneously; one about classes and exy and someone named Adam, and another one which seemed infinitely more important where not a single word was spoken.

Nicky almost started a bet that Ronan and _Gansey_ were sleeping together, but then Blue walked in after one of her classes and _oh_.

The way Gansey looked at her and the way he said ‘Jane’ felt so much more intimate, so much more loaded, than Neil and Andrew’s yes-or-no’s. And the way her fingers brushed his neck before she smoothed out the collar of his frankly hideous polo shirt was just so soft that it could only be an action borne from love or something pretty damn close to it.

Despite all of that, Neil could still see the guilt in Blue’s eyes - he just couldn’t understand it.

*

Three more bets were established after Henry came to visit with a loud, “Sargent these jocks are taking up too much of your time and I miss you.”

*

Blue won her first bet on a Wednesday two weeks after they joined the team.

Besides Neil, Andrew rarely found anyone interesting enough to antagonise since coming off his medication, Blue was the exception to that rule. There was something about her two boyfriends and the way she’d storm off court in the middle of training sometimes, complaining about everything being too loud, that made Andrew take notice of their newest striker. Blue barely noticed the attention but Ronan did.

He wasn’t dumb enough to pick a fight with Andrew – he’d read and heard enough to know it was a fight he wouldn’t win – besides, making the little shit bleed wasn’t likely to get him any answers or win him favour with the team.

Neil didn’t seem all that enthusiastic about his newest backliner going one on one with Andrew without supervision, but Blue’s lack of concern was enough to convince him that it might not end with a dead body.

Renee had mentioned the study rooms that she and Andrew used to spar, but Ronan didn’t want Andrew to walk into the conversation with the expectation of violence. Instead they went to the court, a place where they were on equal footing. Andrew studied his nails and leant against the frame of the goal, refusing to speak first when Ronan had brought them here.

“What’s your issue with Blue?”

Andrew sent Ronan a bored look and refused to break eye contact as he shrugged.

“Cut the crap and answer the question.” The venom in Ronan’s voice caused something dangerous to spark in Andrew’s eyes. “Why are you so interested in Blue?”

“She’s strange,” Andrew stated matter-of-factly. “In my experience strange things tend to be unpredictable. I need to be sure she isn’t going to be a problem for me or mine.”

“She’s a person Andrew, same as everyone else.”

Andrew quirked an eyebrow and it almost looked like Ronan’s statement had amused him. “That’s the thing though, I’m not so sure she is.”

Ronan’s composure slipped for a second – surely Andrew couldn’t know anything about Blue, or about him – and he bit the inside of his cheek to stop from saying anything that might confirm any suspicions the other man already had.

“Leave her alone,” Ronan said eventually. “That includes your little get to know me trips. You’re not going to pull any of that shit with her.”

“What makes you think you have any say?” The look on Andrew’s face was the closest thing to a smile Ronan had ever seen from him and it was all kinds of unsettling.

“I won’t let you.”

“Will you take her place, then?” Andrew pushed off the goal and didn’t stop until he was close enough that he had to actually look up at Ronan. Their stance should have put Ronan in a position of power but he couldn’t help but feel like he’d never be in control of a conversation when it came to the man in front of him. “If she becomes an issue will you bear the consequences?”

Ronan nodded slowly, making sure Andrew knew he was taking this seriously – that he understood the deal he was making.

“Maybe you aren’t as boring as I thought.”

With that, Andrew turned and left, leaving Ronan to follow after him.

When they came back to Fox Tower and neither of them was bleeding or bruised Blue made nearly $300.

*

Andrew still took Blue to Columbia.

Gansey was furious and Henry was worried out of his mind, but Ronan knew it would be fine. He and Andrew had an understanding and Andrew didn’t break promises in the same way that Ronan didn’t lie so he knew that Blue would be okay.

Besides, Nicky and Neil had gone along. Nicky would never let anything happen to Blue and Neil wouldn’t allow Andrew to do anything that would get him into too much trouble. 

They all came back and Blue was in one piece, she waved off Gansey’s anger and Henry’s concern as she finished telling Nicky a joke and that was the end of it.

But things were different after that.

It was like all of a sudden something clicked. They noticed it on the court first; Andrew and Ronan’s understanding seemed to extend into their game and once they stopped trying to antagonise each other and started working together it didn’t take long before the strikers were losing the ball before they even got a chance to shoot on goal.

One night Andrew showed up at the girl’s door, requesting Blue’s presence at Kevin’s nighttime training sessions and just like that Blue disappearing with them at night become a regular thing. It showed too, because a few weeks later she scored on Andrew while he was actually trying and even Kevin managed a small smile.

They were far from a well-oiled machine and there were still some kinks to work out but they were playing as a team, which was enough. 

*

Slowly, Blue and Ronan started to open up to the other foxes. It was small things at first; like Ronan and Matt working on their cars together, or Blue going out shopping with the girls even though she made about ninety per cent of her clothes anyway.

Matt and Aaron didn’t understand how, but had come to accept, that sometimes they’d wake up and find things in their suite that hadn’t been there the night before. Some of it was completely random like pairs of sunglasses or watches without hands, but another time they woke up with car parts in the living area. Whenever they asked about it Ronan just shrugged and eventually they stopped asking.

Nicky doted on Blue like she was the little sister he’d always wanted, playing with her hair and throwing his arm around her shoulder to tell her a story about Erik or one of the twins. Most of the time it was fine, but others it reminded her a little too much of Noah and Ronan was often left to explain her sudden retreats.

Ronan still went to mass every Sunday and occasionally Renee would tag along. The two of them rarely talked about religion otherwise, but for those few hours it was like they’d known each other for years. 

Allison had mentioned that Blue’s fashion sense – or lake thereof – caused her physical pain on more than one occasion, but they’d all caught her defending Blue against trolls online.

No one expected Ronan’s unwavering devotion to their captain but at the same time they weren’t all that surprised. Similarly they didn’t expect Ronan and Kevin to get along, and for the most part they were right – Wymack had muttered something about stubbornness being an Irish thing. They had a lot in common, even though they both refused to admit it, and the only time they really got along was when a bottle of whiskey was thrown into the mix.

The first time Adam came to visit he spent almost as much time with Neil as he did with Ronan – the latter made a joke about them starting a shitty father’s support club and was pleasantly surprised when Gansey was the only one who found it offensive. Whenever Adam visited the team noticed the way Ronan softened, it was almost the way he acted around Blue but it was just _more_. No one mentioned it – the foxes were good at that if nothing else – but they couldn’t help themselves when Ronan swept Opal up into his arms the one time Adam brought her with him.

Andrew’s quiet acceptance of Blue didn’t go unnoticed by anyone. It was the way that he’d sometimes make her hot chocolate even though he never offered anyone else or how he’d risk sanctions in games to throw balls at opponents who checked her a little harder than necessary. Ronan wondered how much she’d told him when he took her to Columbia and if that was why he trusted her, or if perhaps he’d fallen a little in love with Blue just like everyone else seemed to. 

Eventually Blue wasn’t the first person Ronan looked for when he entered a room, and Blue spent more time in her room than she did in Ronan’s. The two of them barely noticed but the rest of the team understood that it meant they were beginning to let down the walls they’d brought with them.

*

Depending on where you began the story, it was about family; not necessarily one that was dictated by blood, but one that – perhaps – meant infinitely more. 

**Author's Note:**

> I love these characters so much but trying to get their characterisation right was one of the hardest things I've ever done so I really hope I was able to do them all justice. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.


End file.
